Friday, October 25, 2019
Caroline Glick: Trump, Israel and the Democratic crackup
In March, when the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) held its annual policy conference, the Democratic presidential candidates opted not to attend. This weekend, five Democratic presidential hopefuls will participate in J Street's national conference.Progressive Jewish Americans and the legitimacy of Zionism
And they aren’t alone. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are also scheduled to address the J Street audience. J Street’s ability to draw top Democrats, including the presidential candidates who refused to attend the AIPAC conference, makes clear just how comfortable the Democratic leadership has become with their party’s sharp turn away from Israel. This weekend the top Democrats will publicly identify with an organization whose easily discerned purpose is to water down and undermine the US-Israel alliance.
Then too, last weekend two top Democratic presidential candidates, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Mayor Pete Buttigieg indicated they supported using US military aid to Israel as a means to coerce the Israeli government into denying the property rights of Israeli Jews in Judea, Samaria and unified Jerusalem. In July, their fellow leading presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) expressed a similar position.
These statements are noteworthy for two reasons. First, they show how ridiculous the impeachment hearings are. There is no substantive difference between Trump’s alleged use of US military assistance to Ukraine as a means to coerce Ukraine to bow to his will and their intention to use US military aid to Israel to achieve a similar outcome. But of course, Warren, Buttigieg, and Sanders are coddled by the partisan media and left untouched by the bureaucracy. And Trump is being subjected to an impeachment probe.
The second noteworthy aspect of their threated action is what it means for the future of US-Israel ties in a post-Trump America. With the Democrats in the media and the federal bureaucracy now full partners in their party’s radical actions and initiatives, there is every reason to expect that after they finish with Trump, they will turn their attention to Israel.
In a column titled, “I Was Protested at Bard College for Being a Jew,” Batya Ungar-Sargan, a liberal Zionist and the Opinion Editor of The Forward, a paper that is decidedly to the left, was targeted by progressive anti-Zionists because the panel was comprised of three Jews, including the esteemed Ruth Wisse of Harvard University.Southern Poverty Law Center Adds Pro-Israel Evangelical Group to Hate List
She said the university had no plans to stop “what was fixing to become an ugly disruption of Jews trying to discuss anti-Semitism.” What shocked her more was the support of the academics and intellectuals in the audience who “applauded” the blatantly anti-Semitic disruption. “These vaunted intellectuals, flown in from across the country … were commending a display of racism against Jews,” she wrote.
Welcome to a world where far-left progressives find commonality with far-right fascists.
Unlike liberal Zionists of the 20th century, many 21st-century progressives attending our leading universities learned that Israel’s founding was the original sin of the Middle East, the ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Arab minority by the interloping Jewish Zionist.
As New York Times columnist and author of How to Fight Anti-Semitism Bari Weiss wrote, “Where once only Israel’s government was demonized, now it is the Jewish movement for self-determination itself” that is delegitimized.
Israel, a nation whose existence is dedicated to a particular people, is an anathema to the universalism of the progressive intellectual, whose dream is a globalized world of universal values, and a distorted understanding of human rights and social justice.
Why Israel is singled out to be the only country whose very existence offends progressives – who seem to ignore other religiously or ethnically dominated states whose actions are far more egregious than Israel’s imperfect democracy – raises troubling questions.
The evangelical organization Proclaiming Justice to The Nations (PJTN) has recently been placed on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s list of hate groups.
PJTN’s main goal is to fight anti-Semitism through encouraging state legislators to act against anti-Semitism and BDS. But the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) added the group, which is headquartered in Franklin, Tennessee, to its hate group list.
This could result in the US Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) adding PJTN personnel to the national no-flight list.
Laurie Cardoza-Moore, president and founder of PJTN, commented: “If being pro-Israel and against anti-Semitism is now considered a hate crime, I will wear the SPLC listing as a badge of honor. Placing Proclaiming Justice to The Nations alongside bigots and Nazis minimizes the true meaning of hate. In reality, PJTN is on the front lines fighting against anti-Semitism on a daily basis. We will continue to fight hate through our thousands of PJTN Watchmen around the globe. Our answer to this absurd listing will be to open more PJTN chapters in America and fight harder to have anti-Semitism defined and confronted throughout the free world.”
But according to SPLC, the pro-Israel group was added to the list because of its anti-Muslim statements: “Anti-Muslim groups remain a force in the US with Donald Trump and important administration members as allies in the White House,” SPLC explains.
Isi Leibler: WJC, revoke the unwise prize
When first elected in 2005, Merkel not only condemned anti-Semitism but maintained that it was Germany’s mission to atone for the Holocaust by ensuring Israel’s security and eliminating Jew-hatred at all levels. She repeatedly expressed deep shame at Germany’s Nazi past and efforts to murder European Jewry.Newly Declassified Documents on the CIA, the Partition of Palestine, and the Creation of Israel
Alas, in recent years she has veered away from this policy. She continues verbally to condemn anti-Semitism but in practice, her government has moved in the opposite direction. In fact, she has contributed in no small way toward making Germany and the world far more dangerous for Jews.
- Merkel has enabled entry to over a million migrants from the Middle East, including numerous jihadists who have imported their anti-Jewish hatred and been involved in numerous anti-Semitic incidents. The feeling shared by most of Germany’s 120,000 Jews is that anti-Semitism has increased dramatically over the past few years. However, the German government tends to downplay the anti-Semitic motivation of the crimes, dismissing them as acts of individual anti-social behavior. Merkel continues to state that the bulk of anti-Semitism in Germany emanates from right-wing extremist sources or persons suffering from mental disabilities – which is manifestly false.
- In addition to supporting the Iranian nuclear deal, Merkel’s government has refused to condemn Iran’s repeated threats to destroy the “cancer” Israel, dismissing these repeated threats as rhetoric. It has also refused to identify Hezbollah as a terrorist organization and enabled marches throughout Germany calling for Israel’s destruction. In February, Germany’s President Frank-Walter Steinmeier sent a congratulatory message to Tehran praising the 40th anniversary of the Islamic revolution. The Foreign Ministry attended an event at the Iranian Embassy celebrating the anniversary. The German government has also been at the forefront of those seeking to circumvent US sanctions against the Tehran regime.
- Germany has condemned US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and pressured Eastern European countries to refrain from relocating their embassies.
- Despite repeated protests from Israel, Merkel’s government continues to provide millions of dollars to organizations promoting the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, which is recognized as being anti-Semitic – a policy that is exclusively applied to Israel.
- Germany’s voting record on Israel-related matters at the United Nations has been among the worst of the hypocritical European nations, which either support or abstain on excessively biased anti-Israel resolutions. Germany also equates Israel’s demolition of terrorist homes with Hamas rocket attacks. One could of have expected the opposite from Germany in light of its repeated pledges to ensure that the lessons of the Holocaust be implemented.
For the WJC to now extend such a prestigious award to Merkel is not only surprising but nauseating. It dishonors Jewish dignity and should be canceled. Leading members of the German Jewish community have condemned the WJC for granting her the award. Dr. Rafael Korenzecher, a German Jewish leader and publisher, sarcastically noted that Merkel deserved a Herzl award for promoting aliyah to Israel and “thanks to her current policy, Germany will be Judenrein [free of Jews].”
In The Arab Lobby, I documented the efforts of Arabists in the State Department to prevent the partition of Palestine primarily because of concern that US support for a Jewish state would threaten access to oil and allow the Soviet Union to gain influence in the region. I also referred to the presence of Arabists in the intelligence community but did not have documents to cite their views — until now.Jonathan S. Tobin: The Democrats’ disconnect from Israeli reality
In a report dated October 20, 1947, the CIA laid out America’s interests and concerns for a place whose “geographic position gives it a strategic significance out of all proportion to its size and wealth.” The report stated, “To counter Soviet infiltration, political, economic, and social stability must be maintained in the area” and access to Middle East oil “depends on friendly US relations with the Arab people as well as with their governments.” The CIA believed the Arabs needed US aid to raise their standard of living but would not accept it if the US supported a Jewish state. Hence, it concluded, “The Palestine issue is capable of changing the development of the Arab world from one of evolution in cooperation with the West to one of revolution with the support of the USSR.”
On the eve of the partition vote, the CIA wrote another report anticipating the consequences of UN approval of partition. It didn’t require access to secrets to know that “armed hostilities” would follow such a vote. The CIA incorrectly predicted, however, that the Arab states would not send their armies to fight out of fear of jeopardizing their position at the UN if they defied a UN decision.
The analysts predicted instead that the Arab force would consist of 100,000-200,000 nomads. The Agency spoke of Bedouins as a “hardy type of fighting man not only imbued with warlike tradition (combining religious fanaticism with an enthusiastic devotion to looting, plundering, and raiding) but also trained in the use of small arms and the methods of desert warfare.” The Agency said tribes of Arabs would join the “crusade” because of a sense of Arab patriotism, the opportunity for plunder, and “the thrill of battle.”
The Arabs, according to the CIA, “believe that not only politically but also culturally, the Jewish state threatens the continued development of the Islamic-Arab civilization.” The Muslim Brotherhood, in particular, “regards westernization as a dangerous threat to Islam and would oppose any political encroachment of Zionism on Palestine with religious fanaticism.” The Agency warned that a jihad would be spearheaded by the Brotherhood whose members believe they would be “assured of entrance into paradise if they die on the field of battle.”
Even if the growing influence of open opponents of Israel in the Democratic Party were downplayed, the trend can’t be ignored. There is no doubt that the party’s left-wing activist base seems to have bought into some of the BDS movement’s lies about Israel and the intersectional myths about the Palestinian war against Israel’s existence being akin to the struggle for civil rights in the United States.
Some of the leading Democratic presidential candidates—mindful of the disproportionate influence that radicals have in party primaries—have been making noises intended to signal their disenchantment with Israel. Over the past weekend, both current frontrunner Sen. Elizabeth Warren and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who is currently in fourth place in the average of polls, stated they were open to cutting or conditioning U.S. military aid to Israel as a way of forcing the Jewish state to bend to their will on the conflict with the Palestinians. It is a position Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, currently in third place in the polls, has already embraced.
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And that’s music to the ears of radical anti-Zionists like the members of IfNotNow, who have been dogging the candidates on the campaign trail in the hope of enticing the contenders into making exactly those kinds of declarations.
It also seems part and parcel of the J Street lobby, which is hosting its annual conference this coming weekend.
J Street has always made a great show of claiming that it shouldn’t be confused with anti-Zionist groups like IfNotNow or Jewish Voices for Peace, whose activism has in some instances demonstrated the close connection between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. J Street claims to be “pro-Israel” and “pro-peace,” and to the extent that it merely echoes the positions of left-wing Zionist Israeli political parties like Meretz, they deserve to be taken at their word. Yet on many college campuses, J Street chapters are nowhere to be found in the battle against BDS; more than that, they have been connected with openly anti-Semitic groups like Students for Justice in Palestine, making common cause with them in opposing pro-Israel college organizations.
But the most important point about the group is that it is completely out of touch with the political reality of Israel. Few Israelis support the positions it advocates: retreat from the West Bank and establish a Palestinian state there. Indeed, even the parties of the left have largely abandoned the sort of faith in the Oslo peace process that is still an article of faith for J Street.
.@Ilhan says “sanctions are ineffective”...except if it’s against the sole Jewish state. Then it’s totally cool and effective.
— Dov Hikind (@HikindDov) October 24, 2019
In other words, Ilhan, every time you speak you can’t help but reveal more of your putrid antisemitism!https://t.co/icWcIxxhJ6?
Poll: 78% of British Jews Prefer ‘No-Deal Brexit’ to Jeremy Corbyn as PM
Despite strong sentiments in favor of remaining in the European Union, British Jews overwhelmingly prefer a “no-deal Brexit” over the prospect of Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn becoming prime minister.Labour’s “ultimate insult” to Jewish community as JVL councillor suspended after “Jew Process” remark is now being pushed to replace Louise Ellman
In a survey conducted for The Jewish Chronicle, 78 percent of the respondents stated that they would choose no deal over Corbyn, with 12 percent disagreeing.
Jews also professed massive opposition to Labour under Corbyn’s leadership, with only seven percent saying they would support the party in the next elections.
Since Corbyn took charge of Labour in 2015, the party has been wracked by antisemitism scandals, leading to the expulsion or suspension of a host of members and officials, and tainting Corbyn’s image nationwide. Previous polls have shown that a majority of British Jews consider him to be personally antisemitic.
Dissident Labour MP Wes Streeting said of the new poll’s findings, “I’m afraid this poll reflects what I hear on the doorstep in my own community, but seeing it so starkly presented is devastating — not least for significant numbers of Jews who clearly want to vote Labour but can’t because of Jeremy Corbyn.”
“Given our very public failure to tackle antisemitism within our ranks, who can blame them?” he added.
The poll showed that 42 percent of respondents might vote for Labour if Corbyn was replaced.
MP Ian Austin, who quit Labour over the antisemitism issue, said, “This poll shows the shameful extent to which the Jewish community — which traditionally showed strong support for Labour — has been alienated by the racism which has poisoned the party under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.”
A Labour councillor who was briefly suspended for dubbing the Party’s disciplinary process as “Jew process” is being pushed to stand in Dame Louise Ellman’s Liverpool Riverside seat.CAA deplores responses from Jeremy Corbyn and other Labour MPs to Louise Ellman’s resignation from the Party
Dame Louise resigned from the Labour Party over its antisemitism scandal and local activists are now reportedly promoting Jo Bird, who was suspended from the Labour Party for derogatory comments about Jews, to replace her.
Cllr Bird is a member of Jewish Voice for Labour, an antisemitism-denial group and sham Jewish representative organisation. She has described herself as “Jew-ish”, relating of her upbringing: “We were raised with socialism not God, solidarity not superiority, trade union stickers not mezuzahs, Woodcraft Folk not Hebrew school, Christmas presents not Chanukah gilt, local not Jewish festivals, internationalism not Zionism, and no circumcision.”
Cllr Bird previously discussed allegations of racism saying: “Seriously, one of the things that does worry me is the privileging of racism against Jews, over and above — as more worthy of resources than other forms of racism.”
One member of the local party branded her candidacy as “the ultimate insult”.
The resignation of Dame Louise Ellman from the Labour Party has elicited a variety of unsatisfactory responses from fellow Labour MPs.Shaista Aziz: Another Potential Labour PPC With Skeletons in the Closet
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn dismissed the resignation of yet another MP over the Party’s antisemitism with his usual platitude: “We do not tolerate antisemitism in any form whatsoever in our party or in any other part of society, just as resolutely as we are opposed to Islamophobia or any other form of racism. And I will hold that position until my dying day.”
This was despite, as another Labour MP, Wes Streeting, noted: “Labour’s leader knew what was happening to Louise…He was warned that another Jewish woman was being hounded out of the Parliamentary Party. He was asked to intervene. He chose not to. This is what institutional racism looks like.”
Harriet Harman, a former Deputy Labour Leader, said that Dame Louise’s resignation “should make every one of us in the Labour Party feel dismayed and ashamed”.
Former Shadow Home Secretary and leadership contender, Yvette Cooper, said: “Am just despairing at the way Louise Ellman has been treated and am sickened to the stomach at [the] response from some in our Party to her resignation. It shames us all that we’ve lost her.”
Sir Keir Starmer, the Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, appearing on BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show, also described the resignation as “a really low moment” but refused to cast blame on Mr Corbyn or suggest any concrete action.
On a BBC Q and A (publicising a documentary she made for them) she says:Salma Yaqoob Deletes all 'Anti-Zionist' Tweets
“I’m a British, Pakistani, Muslim, European woman, a journalist, a storyteller and I dabble in stand-up comedy. I’m a professional nomad! I’ve spent more than ten years working across the Middle East including Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and Syria, Yemen with a number of international aid organisation gathering stories. I’ve had the absolute privilege and honour to meet incredible people and tell their stories. It’s something I never take for granted.”
A few other things make her a great candidate to be a Labour PPC.
At the height of the al Aqsa Intifada she volunteered with the International Solidarity Movement in Nablus in the Northern West Bank. She wrote an article about why Muslims are going off to Jihad in an article here where she claims that:
“In 2002, I packed my bags and headed for the occupied Palestinian territories to participate in jihad”
She elaborates that for her Jihad means “struggle”…as it did for the British suicide bombers who murdered several innocent people at the Mikes Place pub on Tel Aviv beach:
The hard left’s choice for Labour’s West Midland mayoral candidate, Salma Yaqoob, has been caught deleting hoards of Tweets, all of which contain the word Zionist. Yaqoob’s move to cover-up her past comments comes after it was revealed earlier this week she pushed a Rothschild conspiracy – a Tweet she has also since deleted. At some point, Owen Jones and others will surely have to retract their endorsements…Salma Yaqoob's Hamas Supporting Associate
The selection of tweets – which were preemptively archived in the name of politically transparency – include Yaqoob saying Zionists are active in promoting imperial wars; spoke of “Zionist crimes”; said “Zionist supporters can’t win moral argument”; called ‘Zionists’ heartless; and in a tweet to Theresa May’s former Chief of Staff, Gavin Barwell, used the phrase “O go away u Zionist troll”.
Based on other Tweets from Yaqoob’s account that still exist, it is clear she and her team have deliberately targetted the word Zionist in the deleting spree. Did anyone think George Galloway’s former party leader wouldn’t come with this baggage?
Today Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott endorsed Salma Yaqoob as “a long standing [sic] ally of the LGBTQ community”. This is despite the wannabe candidate and former Respect Party leader calling homosexuality “a choice of lifestyle” on national TV, criticising LGBT inclusive education in the Parkfield School dispute, and acting as a spokesperson for a leading member of the Islamic Party of Britain which among its policy platform supports the death penalty for homosexuality. If she were a Tory Labour would be up in arms…Keir Starmer tells BBC’s Marr that he’s “100% behind Jeremy Corbyn” despite Labour leader’s antisemitism
Guido can reveal that Yaqoob has long had an association with Yvonne Ridley, sharing a platform with her on multiple occasions. They clearly get on well.
Highlights from Yvonne include saying “Victory to Hamas!”, “the Zionists have tentacles everywhere”, and declaring “Milliband is a gutless, little weasel who lost more than his foreskin when he was circumcised.” Despite all this, from Owen Jones to Grace Blakely, the Labour Left continue to rally behind Yaqoob…
Sir Keir Starmer, the Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, has insisted that he is “100% behind Jeremy Corbyn…I am working with Jeremy Corbyn to win the next general election.”Labour activist removed from parliamentary candidate shortlist after JC reveals he defended notorious antisemitic image
Sir Keir made the comments on BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show on 20th October.
When questioned on Dame Louise Ellman’s resignation from the Labour Party over antisemitism, Sir Keir conceded: “I think it’s a really low moment. A really low moment. And what I want to do is to redouble our efforts to make sure that Louise and others feel that the Labour Party is a party that they can return to. We’ve already done a lot of work on this. We need to do more. But the end destination for me is a Labour Party where those that have left because of this issue feel that they can return. That will be the judgment for me that will be the test of whether we’ve succeeded.”
When Mr Marr pointed out that Dame Louise laid the blame with Mr Corbyn and accused him of being a danger not just to the Labour Party but to the entire British Jewish community, Sir Keir rejected Dame Louise’s conclusions: “I don’t accept that. I don’t accept that. I do accept that as a Labour Party we have to root out antisemitism and we have to demonstrate to people like Louise that this is a Party that she can return to.”
On Mr Corbyn’s role in Labour’s antisemitism crisis, Sir Keir stated that “I personally don’t find that this personalising takes us very far. We have got an issue with antisemitism in the Party. We’ve got a problem that there is antisemitism. We’ve got a bigger problem that some people don’t acknowledge it. We’re working on that. We’ve got to do that collectively. The test will be whether those that have concerns as Louise did feel that they can return to the Labour Party. When they do, I will consider that we’ve succeeded.”
A Labour activist was removed from the shortlist to be the party's parliamentary candidate in Epping Forest after the JC revealed he defended a notorious antisemitic image showing the image of a parasite on the Statue of Liberty with a Star of David on it.Palestinian Advocacy Group Touring US Has Ties To Terrorist Organization
Colin Monehen, who drew widespread applause at the 2018 Labour Party conference with his impassioned pro-Palestinian speech, claimed the image, which first emerged on a far-right website, could be interpreted as "being about the state of Israel, not the Jewish people".
The image, which showed the Statue of Liberty being smothered by an alien with the Star of David on its back, was shared by Kayla Bibby, who represented the Liverpool Riverside constituency at the 2018 Labour conference. She wrote: “The most accurate photo I’ve seen all year!”
The image had been taken from a far-right website, Incogman, where it had been used to illustrate an article that portrayed Jews as “parasitic” and said they were to blame for “financial heists of entire nations”.
But the JC can reveal that Mr Monehen tried to defend the hugely controversial image in August in an exchange on Twitter.
A Palestinian advocacy group wrapping up a 10-day speaking tour across the U.S. has ties to a Palestinian terrorist organization, according to research by the Israeli government and NGO Monitor.Exposé: Antisemitism at Columbia/Barnard
The Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association describes itself as “a Palestinian non-governmental, civil institution that works to support Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli and Palestinian prisons,” according to its website. However, the watchdog group NGO Monitor and the Israeli government noted that the group has close links to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
The U.S. government labeled PFLP as a terrorist organization in 1997. NGO Monitor publishes “fact-based research and independent analysis about non-governmental organizations (NGOs),” according to its website.
Addameer’s speaking tour focuses on Palestinian political prisoners, and Friday’s event in Chicago will center on teaching people about “the political prisoners’ struggle in Palestine,” according to a tweet from the U.S. Palestinian Community Network.
Addameer was founded in 1992 by members of PFLP, some of whom were convicted of terrorism, according to a February special report from the Israeli government. Addameer provides legal help for Palestinian prisoners and detainees and has been active in campaign to the state of Israel, the report added.
In a comprehensive research document, Alums for Campus Fairness (ACF), with most sourcing and categorizing methods from AMCHA Initiative, has chronicled the antisemitic incidents transpiring at Columbia University and its sister school, Barnard College, since the 2016-17 academic year. These campuses are arguably the most prominent settings for university-based antisemitism in the United States. This dossier is meant to inform the public and equip members of the media with detailed information to expose the gravity of the situation.BDS supporters post fake anti-Israel ads on London Underground
The disturbing antisemitic climate at Columbia and Barnard is the result of a proliferation of antisemitic incidents, utterances and behavior towards Jewish students, brought below.
Antisemitic Expression - Language, imagery or behavior deemed antisemitic by the guidelines outlined in the U.S. State Department definition of antisemitism. Recent examples include:
- The May 2019 Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) “die-in” on campus, at which a student speaker read a statement that condoned terrorism, denied Jewish self-determination, and demonized and delegitimized Israel.
- The April 2019 “Israeli Apartheid Week,” during which SJP erected a mock “apartheid wall” on campus, with one wall panel stating, “End Israeli Apartheid” in large letters and another calling for “return,” insinuating the elimination of the only Jewish state.
- The Center for Palestine Studies, which held an event in March 2019 with a title and description that accused Israel of “apartheid.”
Targeting Jewish Students and Staff - Incidents that directly target Jewish and Zionist students on campus, or other Jewish members of the campus community, with harmful or hateful action based on their Judaism or perceived support for Israel. Recent examples include:
- SJP’s April 2019 statement to the campus community that urged the community to ostracize Zionist and pro-Israel student groups, including Students Supporting Israel (SSI), by asking the campus “to reject racism, reject Zionism.”
- SJP’s February 2019 denigration of Hillel's Birthright Program, including a statement on Valentine’s Day that “there's nothing romantic about a propaganda trip on occupied land!”
- The November 2018 incident when a Jewish professor’s office was vandalized with swastikas and the antisemitic term “Yid” found spray-painted in red in the entryway to the office.
BDS Activity – Incidents tied to the BDS movement that are antisemitic in intent, content, expression, and effect. Recent examples include:
- The March 2019 proposal on whether to hold a campus-wide referendum on divestment from Israel, which was debated in the Student Council for four hours and ultimately failed in a secret ballot.
- The April 2018 Barnard’s Student Government Association (SGA) letter urging administrators to divest from eight companies with ties to Israel.
- The Columbia University Apartheid Divest’s March 2018 event, titled “WTF is BDS?!”
Supporters of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel put up fake advertisements on a line of the London Underground, which Transport for London called “an act of vandalism.”CAA applauds Nottingham Trent University for expelling student who stuck Palestine sticker on mouth of sleeping Jew
The posters called for a boycott of the Puma sports company over its sponsorship of the Israeli Football Association. Transport for London said Wednesday, the day the posters appeared, that it would immediately remove the BDS propaganda, the London-based Jewish Chronicle reported.
The posters featured the Puma logo along with the words “Boycott – Give Puma the boot” as well as pictures of Israeli soldiers arresting Palestinian youths. They also called Puma “proud sponsors of Israeli apartheid.”
They were meant to promote a protest outside a Puma shop over the coming weekend.
Nottingham Trent University has expelled a first-year student for photoshopping a Palestine sticker over the mouth of an Orthodox Jew sleeping on the London Underground.Exclusive Canadian Private School Punishes Students for Antisemitic Behavior
The student had a photograph taken of himself in a mocking pose with the sleeping Jewish passenger on public transport and reportedly posted it on the dating site Tinder, before it was shared more widely on Twitter.
The University had suspended the student, who had not yet begun his studies, as a disciplinary panel decided on appropriate action.
Binyomin Gilbert, Programme Manager at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “We applaud Nottingham Trent University for swiftly suspending and now expelling this student for this grossly offensive act. This is what zero tolerance of antisemitism looks like, and other universities should learn from Trent’s example.”
Up to 19 students from an exclusive private school in Vancouver, British Columbia, faced strong disciplinary action — including expulsion — after they were recently discovered making Nazi salutes on campus and mocking the Holocaust on a private online messaging channel, among other racist and antisemitic offenses.Nazi authored Arabic-English dictionary causes stir at University of Minnesota
The students attending the $45,000-per-year St. George’s School in the Canadian city were reported to school staff by another student who discovered their antisemitic posts on a direct message group earlier this month.
Samantha Wink — head of communications for the school — told The Algemeiner on Thursday that “a number of boys have been suspended and several have been expelled” because of their actions, which allegedly included making Nazi salutes on school grounds.
One anonymous student at the school who was quoted extensively by Canadian media outlets said that the group of boys come from various cultural backgrounds and had been sharing “mainly antisemitic and anti-black” content for at least the past two years.
St. George’s School immediately launched an internal investigation after the group was discovered.
Sgt. Steve Addison, a spokesman for the Vancouver Police Department, told The Algemeiner that a police investigation was also ongoing. “This file remains open,” Addison said on Thursday.
The revelation that the late German scholar Hans Wehr, who authored the preeminent Arabic-English dictionary, was a Nazi, has triggered a debate about the ethics of using his book.
One of the world’s leading Islamic historians, Dr. Daniel Pipes, tweeted on Tuesday: “ Hans Wehr’s Nazi role has- after 70 years - suddenly become a public issue at the University of Minnesota 'after second-year student @Rodrigo_Tojo Garcia found information online about Wehr”s background."'
The student Rodrigo Tojo Garcia located shocking material about Wehr’s Nazi history online and reported it to another student who approached Katrien Vanpee, the director of Arabic language instruction at the university. The campus newspaper The Minnesota Daily first reported on Sunday the unease of using Wehr’s dictionary.
“...I was amazed that it hadn’t come up, that no one had talked about it,” Tojo Garcia said. “You would think with something like that, especially in the modern political climate ... that someone would’ve mentioned at some point that Hans Wehr did this — but they didn’t. And that was a shocking thing to know,” Rodrigo Tojo Garcia told The Minnesota Daily.
Wehr was born in 1909 and joined the Nazi party in 1940. The German Arabist died in 1981. Wehr argued in an essay that Germany should promote an alliance with "'the Arabs’ against England and France, not to mention against the Zionists in Palestine,” according to an article by Stefan Buchen on the website of Qantara.de.
Perhaps he can get a part in Hamas’ next propaganda video? https://t.co/OCqEOujOaU
— (((David Lange))) (@Israellycool) October 25, 2019
Twitter Falls For The Terrorist Wing Scam
Twitter has just fallen for the oldest trick in the terrorist organization playbook. It’s resisting a bipartisan congressional call to exclude Hamas and Hezbollah from operating freely on its platform on the grounds that it allows only the “political” but not the “military” factions to tweet. The geniuses at the Silicon Valley tech giant have been duped by what I call the terrorist wing scam.European chief rabbi warns anti-Semitism on rise
For over a century, the most successful terrorist organizations have learned to disguise their true nature by creating political and charitable “wings,” “arms,” or “branches” (the metaphor varies). These enterprises act like dummy corporations, allowing groups to participate in the very same civil societies which they attack. Ever since the IRA pretended that Sinn Fein was the “political wing” of the Irish resistance, only loosely connected to the “militant IRA,” other terrorist groups have followed suit, either with political or charitable “wings.” Successful counterterrorism begins with rejecting this illusion of separation.
Twitter’s gullibility first came to light on September 22, when a bipartisan press release by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Tom Reed (R-NY), Max Rose (D-NY), and Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-R) pointed out that Twitter allows Hamas and Hezbollah to operate accounts in clear violation of U.S. law criminalizing “material support” for U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations. The congressmen demanded that Twitter “remove all content from Foreign Terrorist Organizations.”
Twitter responded on September 25 with a letter from Carlos Monje, Jr., director of public policy and philanthropy, defending its policy of allowing Hamas and Hezbollah on its site. His explanation is a textbook example of what happens when one accepts the wing scam. “Twitter,” he explains, “draws a distinction between the political and military factions of these organizations.”
The chief rabbi of the main Orthodox rabbinical alliance in Europe said Thursday that a resurgence of anti-Semitism on the continent "poses an existential threat to the Jewish community."Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick makes good on pledge to write to all local councils urging adoption of International Definition of Antisemitism
Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt of the Conference of European Rabbis said that the receding memory of the Holocaust, rising far-right sentiment and radical Islam are the key factors fueling the anti-Semitic climate.
The attack on a German synagogue on Yom Kippur, in which two bystanders were killed, was the latest violent manifestation of the trend, he said.
Goldschmidt spoke ahead of the awarding of the Moshe Rosen Award to the founder of the Catholic charity Sant'Egidio, Andrea Riccardi.
The award, which was to be presented Thursday in Rome, recognizes non-Jews who promote dialogue, understanding and tolerance to ensure a Jewish future in Europe.
Earlier this year, Goldschmidt warned that proposals in Europe to ban non-medical circumcision and ban kosher slaughter were making Jews on the continent feel unwelcome, even as anti-Semitism was increasing.
Robert Jenrick, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, has reportedly written to all local authorities in the country urging adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism.
In doing so, Mr Jenrick makes good on his pledge last month to do so, when he described antisemitism as a “ scourge” and “a stain on our society”, declaring that “there is no place for antisemitic abuse”.
Campaign Against Antisemitism welcomes Mr Jenrick’s ongoing efforts to combat antisemitism in local politics and elsewhere.
In 2016, the British Government became the first in the world to adopt the International Definition, following many meetings with Campaign Against Antisemitism.
Hitler youth aka Lazio fans invading Glasgow @EuropaLeague pic.twitter.com/xj6sG2DrW8
— Ravz (@PlaydirtyRavz) October 24, 2019
France finally allows access to ancient tombs in east Jerusalem
France is poised to reopen a contested archaeological site in east Jerusalem following successful talks with Israel, Israel Hayom has learned.Israeli Technology Converts Air Into Water for Residents in Northern Colombia
The site, known as the Tombs of the Kings, is situated just off the Old City of Jerusalem and is owned by the French government.
The Consulate General of France in Jerusalem has long refused to let tourists enter the site, citing ongoing renovations and maintenance, until now.
René Troccaz, France's consul general in the city, announced last week that under a new policy the site would be open to the public twice a week. Visitors would have to register in advance online, he said.
The catacomb has been under the administration of France for the past 150 years owing to international agreements dating back to the Ottoman period.
Scholars believe the tombs date back to the Second Temple Period. Queen Helena of Adiabene, a convert to Judaism, is believed to have been buried in a special sarcophagus that was found at the site, which was subsequently put on display at Paris' Louvre museum along with other sarcophagi revealed by excavations there.
Residents of El Talento, a small town in Colombia adjacent to the city of Cúcuta, have been introduced to the GEN-M, Watergen’s medium-scale atmospheric generator (AWG) that produces water out of air.FIDF supporters to cycle across Israel with wounded veterans
The machine, a technological innovation of the Israel-based company, arrived in Cúcuta at the beginning of October thanks to Andrés Suárez, pastor of the Christian Center and general manager of the alliance project with the State of Israel in Colombia.
Suárez said he was driven by a desire to show residents in northern Colombia that such technology can provide some of the most needy communities in the region with safe drinking water.
Requiring no external infrastructure to operate except for a source of electricity, Watergen’s GEN-M can make up to 800 liters of water per day. With a weight of just 780 kilograms, the machine is easily transportable and specially designed to help isolated communities that do not have adequate access to clean water.
TX Solutions, Watergen’s partner in Colombia, is presenting Watergen’s approach to humanitarian organizations, many of which have expressed interest in acquiring GEN-M machines to help other communities.
Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) will host its 5th Annual Ride, an intense six-day bicycle adventure through Israel, from Nov. 2-8. Joining over 50 North American FIDF supporters for this cross-country ride will be a group of wounded Israeli combat veterans who benefit from FIDF rehabilitative programs and prosthetic devices. Israeli cycling champion Roy Goldstein will also join the riders.
Beginning in the southernmost city of Eilat, the riders will head north, cycling through the Mitzpe Ramon crater in the Negev Desert, then embark on a second phase from Mount Carmel in the north to Caesarea, finally ending in Tel Aviv. The ride will allow the participants, all of whom are avid cyclists, to show solidarity with and support for the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) while they visit unique military sites, meet with soldiers on IDF bases along the way, and learn about the historical and geographical background of Israel and its borders. Activities for non-cyclists who participate in the trip will be available as well.
“We are extremely excited to be hosting our 5th FIDF Annual Ride in Israel. Biking across Israel with wounded veterans will help participants really experience the land, and the impact FIDF makes on the brave men and women who benefit from our programs,” said FIDF Midwest Executive Director Tamir Oppenheim. “This bike ride will provide an incredible opportunity for FIDF supporters to explore Israel in a fun and challenging way.”
Incredible story that will give you goose bumps & maybe shed a tear.
— American Zionism (@americanzionism) October 24, 2019
Fatma from Zanzibar became the 5,000th child whose life was saved in Israel through the Save a Child's Heart charity. Her mother received the same free operation in Israel 20 years earlier.
The real Israel. pic.twitter.com/Bzgv6PiXJW
WATCH: Can you guess how many people visited the Western Wall in Jerusalem during the last month in Israel? pic.twitter.com/aOVRCXWiTZ
— StandWithUs (@StandWithUs) October 24, 2019
